WHITE SCOURS IN CALVES 23 
dish in color, and in which more or less dense and abundant clots of fibrinous exudate 
are floating. | When the lesion is older, instead of synovia, there are thick, dense, 
and firm fibrinous exudates, which fill the culs-de-sac of the serous membrane and are 
infiltrated between the articular surfaces. In these cases the lesion resembles exictly 
those of peripneumonic arthritis of sucking calves.”’ 
He found a microérganism (Pasteurella) in the organs and blood 
of the calves, with which he was able to produce the disease. After 
convincing himself that he had found the cause, he sought for the 
source of infection, which he found in the wmbilicus. He advanced 
three suppositions concerning the time and mode of entrance: 1. 
intra-uterine, 2. vaginal, 3. after delivery when the calf drops on 
the ground or floor and when the ruptured cord comes in contact 
with the fecal matter or dust of the stable. The latter he believes 
to be the actual method. 
He states that “white scours is ordinarily the result of umbilical 
infection. which takes place at the time of birth, through the wound 
made by the rupture of the cord.” 
The disease described by Nocard does not seem to differ in many 
respects from the diarrhea in young calves in this country. Lesage 
and Delmar have described it in France. Ward and Fisher tested 
Nocard’s method of treatment by properly disinfecting the ruptured 
cord, with quite satisfactory results. A number of experiences 
in the thorough washing of the cows and disinfecting the teats before 
parturition have been successful in checking this trouble. The 
lung complications do not always occur. 
The bacteriological examination of young calves that died of this 
trouble showed that their blood and organs were teeming with a 
variety of B. coli. We have not found Bact. bovisepticum (Pasteu- 
rella) in any of our cases. This suggests the possibility of umbilical 
infection with members of other groups of bacteria. The important 
findings of Nocard should stimulate further investigations into this 
important disease. The remedy which he recommends, and which 
has given good results, is simply one of prevention. To what extent 
infection takes place through the digestive tract has not been deter- 
mined but it is believed to be considerable. It is not impossible 
that intra-uterine infection from the dam sometimes occurs. Wil- 
liams has found the abortion bacillus in the pneumonic lungs of the 
new-born calf. 
Titze and Weichel suggest the possibility that the cause of white 
scours is an ultra-visible virus. In their study of this disease they 
found in the tissues B. coli commune, Pseudocoli bacilli, Paracoli 
